Matt and Cat are always grateful for your suggestions for places to try next. If there’s a food venue you want them to visit,...

Matt and Cat are always grateful for your suggestions for places to try next. If there’s a food venue you want them to visit, just leave a comment here with your suggestion. They check this post regularly and every suggestion is taken on board… although with so many great places to eat on the Island they might take a while to get round to visit each one.

If you’ve got a comment about a particular restaurant they’ve already visited then please comment on the review page, not here.

Please check they haven’t already been to your suggested venue by using the search feature, as otherwise your wisdom might get deleted unread!

They won’t normally respond directly here in this page, but watch out to see whether your suggestion is taken up. To keep the page to a manageable size comments here are deleted once they get old and/or when the review suggested is written.

Hi, I would highly recommend you to try Golden Sands, Ventnor. We have been their on several occasions and out of all the places to eat along ventnor seafront we have eaten at, Golden sands is by far our favourite. They have a delicious full English breakfast but our favourite meal is their fish and chips. Please do a review as they thoroughly deserve it.

No, we were told that you have to arrive early in the day to catch one of the pasteis de nata! The grapevine has informed me they are baked at the café now occupying part of the site of the late lamented “Ruths of Cowes”…

At last a really good Indian restaurant in East Cowes! Taste of India is under new management but is in the same premises previously occupied by the unlamented Purple Mango. Very recently opened up under this very enthusiastic management, the standard of food and service are amongst the best I have experienced with an Indian restaurant or, indeed, any other type. If you have not been there, I thoroughly recommend a visit asap. They deserve a boost to help grow their business and I worry that they may suffer from being in the same premises as their predecessors. Bon appetite!

Had take away fish and chips yesterday from Samels in East Cowes. Fish was fine but chips were really poor very dry and not nice to eat. Will not be buying from them again. I’d even go so far as to say even worse than the cod father!!!

Have you tried Sam’s Peri Peri ?
It is the best value in town, with lovely chicken,and a variety of different menus including tasty Chicken rice, salad,ice cream,and the cheapest(yet tasty)coffee.Served by friendly staff, you must try it!

Wonky Cafe – not so wonky now
So glad to see that Wonky Cafe at Whitecliff Bay has reopened (it opened at Easter but this is our first visit this year). Now rebuilt and reinforced against the weather. Such a perfect setting. We had an excellent veggie Breakfast, served on hot plates, with good quality cutlery, by the most cheerful staff. And it opens at 9am whereas the Whitecliffe Bay Cafe (used to be Tuppenny Cafe) doesn’t awaken until 10am.

“Crave” – superb new ice-cream parlour in Ventnor. Just ice-cream, ultra-fresh and made on the premises: plain, or a range of enticing flavours. Has to be the best I’ve tasted on the IW since the long-lost days of Farmers of Skew Bridge.

And a made-to-measure setting in the former Ventnorian store in Spring Hill. Original tiled walls, a friendly welcome, with the opportunity to sit on a milk-churn-shaped stool at one of the windows, watching the busting scene outside. A five-star set-up!

Matt and Cat respond: Thanks da: we’ve given it a go and found it most satisfactory.

Visited today (8/6/15) for a snack and coffee. I ordered the BLT sandwich and an Americano. The coffee was excellent and when the sandwich came it consisted of two rounds of granary bread cut into two triangles with plenty of leaves and crisps. Unfortunately I must take issue with the bacon. I lifted one triangle and inspected the bacon offering. As I was looking for summer houses on my outing I had my tape measure to hand. The single bacon piece on the triangle was 1 1/4″ long and 1/2″ width. The same measurements also on the second triangle. Somewhat disappointing so I could only award 5/10.

Sorry, but until a review appears on here I feel I have to keep plugging One Holyrood! Now a firm favourite with many its fame needs to spread. Where else in Newport has such a tranquil garden,with stylish yet historic interior? It does luscious breakfasts, mouthwatering lunches and exquisite tea and cake – all provided with a welcome and in a relaxing atmosphere. High-point must be the soup – once sampled, forever smitten!

Matt and Cat respond: agreed da, we’ve visited several times and really enjoyed it – just haven’t got around to writing it up yet.

Looks like a nice little coffee shop has opened up at the back of St Helens Post Office. Cakes look appealing! It will be good to have another option in the area – hopefully with more accessible opening times than its rivals…

Birdham/Windmill/Spinnaker, Bembridge – re. comments on 29/30th September last, the word on the street is that scaffolding is now up and feverish activity underway to prepare the venue for the coming season…

Who said anything about despising them? Some of them were good friends of mine!

Seriously, though, I think the criticism of the “asset-stripper” was not the he wasn’t from these parts – more that he tried to bring a slightly edgy “townie” feel to a pub that at its best was like being in someone’s living room. When we first came back to the Island eight years ago, the Roadside was a lively pub with a real “buzz” – excellent food (see Matt & Cat’s original review) and a cosmopolitan clientele that even included some of those posh folk from down the hill!